Welcome to The Hype – a monthly digest of the hottest products, trends and innovations from the world of premium and luxury retail, hand-picked by our Premium Panel.
Selfridges launches new £40m website
This month Selfridges launched their new website as part of a £40m investment to bring their online presence in line with the experience people have of the brand in-store. The new website features a clean, minimal design with new options such as a quick view of products and wish list functionality. Content has been given greater prominence on the homepage and the site is fully responsive across mobile and tablet to cater for the 60% of traffic they receive from those channels. Our Premium Panel loved the sleek new design, but felt the desktop version wasn’t as user friendly as it could have been have been as iPad and mobile sites had been given greater preference.
Planning to shop on the new website? Don’t forget that there is a £50 Selfridges voucher up for grabs for one of our Premium Panel members this month. For a chance to win, join the Panel before the 30th October.
Alexander Wang’s collection for H&M revealed in full
Alexander Wang’s collaboration with H&M is being touted as one of the hottest high street collaborations to date.
Although the range doesn’t hit stores until November, the hype has been building as H&M and Wang have been drip-feeding us sneak previews of the forthcoming collection. Earlier in the month, the full lookbook and an interactive video landed online, revealing a strong 38 piece collection featuring Wang’s signature sports luxe aesthetic – think scuba, mesh and crop tops, all emblazoned with the designer’s graphic branding.
The collection launches in stores and online on the 6th November. If H&M’s previous designer collaborations are anything to go by, you’ll need to be up at the crack of dawn for inevitable queuing or frantic webpage refreshing in order to get your mitts on a piece.
Is fashion being dictated by technology?
If you’ve recently upgraded to iPhone 6 Plus or another ‘Phablet’ of choice, then you’ve probably discovered that the days of casually popping your phone in your pocket are long gone. To combat this problem, fashion brands including J. Crew, Lee Jeans, Levi’s, L.L. Bean and American Eagle are rumoured to be considering designing larger pockets on their garments to accommodate the iPhone 6 Plus.
Jimmy Choo launches online customisation service
Luxury shoe designer Jimmy Choo has just launched an online personalisation service which allows customers the ability to design their very own bespoke pair of Choos.
The made-to-order service allows customers to choose one of four iconic silhouettes and customise them by choosing from an array of heel heights, colours and materials. For the finishing touch, the brand will also add a monogram of your initials to the soles. Even if you’re not in the market for a £475+ pair of Choos, it’s easy to while away hours playing shoe designer on the website and creating different combinations. The shoes take around 9-11 weeks to be created and delivered, so there may be just enough time to pop a pair on your Christmas list!
Shop Direct unveils launch plans for luxury site VeryExclusive.co.uk
This month also saw Shop Direct reveal that it will launch its luxury spin-off site VeryExclusive.co.uk during London Fashion Week next February.
VeryExclusive.co.uk will span women’s clothing, footwear, accessories and beauty and will sell both ‘accessible luxury’ and ‘high street luxury’ from brands including Marc by Marc Jacobs, Vivienne Westwood and McQ. The retailer will also allow customers to purchase items using their credit account and spread the cost over three months interest-free, meaning that these ‘luxury’ pieces will become much more accessible. Our Premium Panel is particularly excited about being able to invest in designer classics such as bags and shoes and have the option to spread the cost. We’re also interested to see how the experience of buying through Very.com will compare to purchasing through the designers themselves.
Cara Delevinge launches range for DKNY and scouts models from Instagram
October also saw model-of-the-moment Cara Delevinge add yet another string to her already impressive bow by designing a capsule collection for DKNY.
Her collection features 15 sports-tastic unisex garments, all featuring details with “a special meaning to Cara”. Cara also called upon her Instagram followers to post pictures of themselves to their Instagram feeds with the tag #CaraD4DKNY and #CaraWantsYou to help her scout six budding models to join her in New York for the shoot.
The full collection is available to buy via DKNY.com, Net-A-Porter and Harvey Nichols.
Fashion gets furry
There’s one trend that always comes back around when the temperature starts to drop, and that’s faux fur. However, this season we’ve seen a new spin on the trend pop up in the form of furry arm candy. Our Panelist, Bethanie, has her eye on this amazing version by Diane Von Furstenberg, but if you can’t stretch to this, there are plenty of more affordable versions on popping up on the high street.
That’s it for The Hype this month. Have you spotted anything we’ve missed? Please do let us know over on the Premium Panel Facebook group.
See you next month!
*Leapfrogg’s Premium Panel is a collection of like-minded premium consumers sharing insight into their shopping behaviours and expectations from premium and luxury brands. If you have a passion for premium retail, love luxe and get excited by exclusives, join our Premium Panel over on Facebook. Alternatively, email us on [email protected] to be added to the mailing list.